The majority of pet owners don't think twice before buying their pet's food from a supermarket or chain store. This food is cost effective, readily available, convenient and well-marketed. However, more and more people are beginning to realize the benefits of feeding high-quality and raw foods to their pets (often at the sacrifice of convenience and a slightly higher price tag.) Anthony Holloway, CEO and founder of K9Cuisine.com, is hoping to make a change in the way we feed our pets. (photo: left) His company chooses only the highest quality foods available on the market to sell to his customers. K9 Cuisine also offers expert advice from veterinarians, so pet owners can always be sure they are providing the best care possible for their animals. Unfortunately, high-quality pet foods are not easily accessible for many people. These types of foods are often found only at specialty pet supply stores and therefore not easy to find for individuals living in rural or less-populated areas. K9 Cuisine is working hard to provide a solution to this problem by making high-quality, organic, and even raw diets available for purchase online with the click of a mouse--all at competitive prices with speedy shipping. So how did K9 Cuisine get its start? Why is it so important to feed your pet the best quality food available? Anthony Holloway was kind enough to provide readers of Mad About Pets the answers to these questions and more in a very informative interview:Please tell me about K9 Cuisine and how it was founded.K9Cuisine.com was born from my own frustration with sourcing quality healthy food for my pet. My dog, Daisy, had developed an allergy to grains found in most pet foods. I did quite a bit of research to find foods that were healthy and would work well for her. Living in a rural area, I was not able to purchase these higher nutrition grain-free foods locally. Purchasing online, I was paying exorbitant fees for shipping and never knew for sure if the product was available or when it would actually arrive.
I began communicating online with consumers, who like myself were looking to source healthy nutrition for their pets. I quickly realized there was an excellent business opportunity in supplying premium quality pet nutrition online while providing a more positive buying experience for these consumers.
What makes K9 Cuisine different from other online pet food and supply retailers?Quite possibly the single biggest differences between K9Cuisine.com and other retailers are:
Product Mix – At K9Cuisine.com we have over thousands of products to choose from. All of these products have been inspected, tested, and selected for their premium nutritional values. We are proud to offer such a vast collection of only the highest quality pet food on the market.
Customer Care – Our phones, live chat, and email requests are answered by our trained staff who are available 24/7 for answering customer’s questions and assisting them with placing orders. While we may be an internet company, our business is truly fueled by this wonderful caring staff.
Communication – From the moment an order is placed until it arrives on our customer’s doorstep, we communicate with the customer regarding their order status. As online consumers, we recognize the value in knowing your order was received, shipped, and when it will arrive.
Fast & Free Shipping – Most orders at K9Cuisine ship the same day the order is received. Unlike other online companies, we actually warehouse our products. Product availability, coupled with our efficient staff and shipping system, ensure most orders ship via Federal Express within hours of arrival. And, any order over $50 ships FREE! Pet foods may be bulky and heavy and costly to ship. Free shipping is not often provided in this industry.
Why is it so important to choose pet foods with human-grade ingredients?The regulators have historically placed much tighter regulations and restrictions on facilities manufacturing human-grade foods. These guidelines range from what specific food ingredients may be utilized, to where and in what condition these ingredients may be obtained, to the level of sanitary methods utilized in the manufacturing process. One may only imagine what may be occurring in those facilities not required to meet these guidelines/ regulations…
What types of things are contained in "traditional" pet foods that can adversely affect our pets' health?Many of the traditional pet foods in our supermarkets today have a grain (corn, wheat, or soy) listed as one of their top three ingredients. This means that food is primarily comprised of “
fillers”. Another common ingredient listed is gluten. Glutens are used to falsely inflate the food’s protein content. Dogs and cats diets should contain animal based proteins. Their bodies were never designed to adequately metabolize plant based proteins and fillers. If in the wild, they would not likely be grazing in a cornfield. Their bodies crave animal protein as it is most easily digestible to them. These plant “fillers” often lead to
allergies, ear infections,
urinary tract infections, and countless other ailments.
Other common ingredients found in supermarket foods are
by-products, chemicals, preservatives,
BHA,
BHT,
Ethoxyquin … These products provide no nutritional value and have only been included to convenience the manufacturer and retailer by providing a lower cost raw material, to make their otherwise unpalatable food more acceptable, or to extend the shelf-life of their products.
As a rule, I
look at the ingredients listed on the bag and ask myself with each individual ingredient listed, if I would feed it to my pet in its raw, individual form. If a food contains any ingredient I would not normally want my pet ingesting, I wouldn’t feed that food to Daisy and I would not sell that food to my customers. At K9Cuisine.com our foods contain animal based proteins, fruits, vegetables, and whole grains as their primary ingredients.
There have been tremendous advances in this industry to incorporate natural ingredients promoting antioxidants, joint health, and numerous other remedies. We are happy to offer these premium nutrition foods which promote good health and a better quality of life to our customer’s furry companions.
What should consumers look for when choosing a food for their dog or cat?One of the simplest methods for comparing and choosing foods for your pets, is to look at the first five
ingredients listed on the bag. Because ingredients are listed in order, most of your pet’s nutrient value comes from these first five sources. You want to ensure that these ingredients are quality sources of protein and vitamins, as opposed to grains (corn, wheat, soy) which are used as “fillers” and provide very little nutritional value. Just as we do in our own diet, we want to avoid providing our pets these “empty calories”.
(Make sure you follow K9 Cuisine on Facebook and Twitter, and be sure to check out their blog for expert advice and more information on the best foods to feed your pet. Don't miss K9 Cuisine's dog food rating tool to see how your current dog food stacks up!)
